This weekend Mr. A and I volunteered to make dinner for our Sunday night Lent bible study group. Last week, one of our church kiddos politely asked her Dad where the dessert was. He told her there wasn’t any dessert and she responded, “It’s not dinner without dessert.”
So when I was contemplating this week’s meal I knew that I had to make a dessert but I wanted it to be something that fit in with the rest of the healthy food I was preparing. I figured nothing goes better with a healthy meal than a spiced apple cake.
Healthy Apple Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cake
Ingredients:
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 3 apples
- ½ cup applesauce
- 1 tablespoon of cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon of nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ cup agave nectar
- ¼ cup molasses
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 1 egg white
Peel, core and chop up your 3 apples into small chunks (less than ½ inch). Set aside apples for later.
In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda and salt). Mix until combined.
In another bowl, combine wet ingredients (applesauce, honey, molasses, and agave). At this point, you are probably wondering about that strange sounding agave thing.
Agave nectar is a natural sweetener produced from a blue agave plant. Agave is used in healthy baking because it has a lower glycemic index than standard processed sugar. This means that it won’t spike your blood sugar as much as regular sugar. It’s also 1.5 times sweeter than sugar so you can use less of it in your recipes, saving calories. You can find agave in any health food stores. I pick up a 32 ounce bottle from MOM’s for about $10.
Then add 1 egg to wet ingredients and beat until combined. Add egg white and beat mixture again.
Pour the wet mixture into your dry ingredient bowl and mix until combined.
Add in your sliced apples and chocolate chips. Gently fold them into the mixture.
Pour the final mixture into an 11 by 7 pan and bake for 45 minutes.
The end result is a scrumptiously spiced apple cake with a gentle sweet kick from the chocolate chips. I love that this recipe isn’t sickly sweet but it definitely will satisfy your sweet tooth.
This is also the kind of cake that’s infinitely more delicious when it’s served warm. But that also means you would have to enough self-control to get a slice into the microwave before you eat the whole thing.
Trust me, that’s hard with these chocolate chips calling your name.
